12 Instagram Plugins For WordPress Worth Installing

Trying to decide whether or not to use Instagram as part of your social media marketing strategy? If you’re not ‘gramming for your business yet, here are ten reasons why you should get started.

Pretty awesome, right?

As a WordPress developer, there are a few other reasons why you should be a fan of working with Instagram. Check out this extra motivation:

It’s Owned by Facebook

Instagram is now owned by Facebook, which means that the original Instagram we met back in 2010 is not the same as what we have today. Is that a good thing? I’d say so.

Thanks to Facebook’s contribution, we now have live video capabilities, stories, scrolling photos, and sponsored post possibilities which all make it even more appealing for businesses to use in their marketing efforts. As a developer, pay special attention to the built-in CTA feature for stories as well as enhanced analytics—Instagram is slowly becoming a more marketing-friendly platform.

The Instagram API

Again, because Instagram now has the backing of Facebook, we’re seeing a lot of overlap in what can be accomplished between the two platforms. Much like the API for Facebook, the one for Instagram gives developers like yourself more control over the app as well as insights into what’s happening with your audience. So, if you want a photo-centric social media platform that you can take control of and incorporate into your WordPress site, look no further.

One more bonus to consider here is the storage factor. Much like the YouTube, Instagram plugins prevent you from overloading your site’s server with image storage. What’s not to love about that?

With so many different ways you can use Instagram for business, it only makes sense that we should take a look at the plugins to help you integrate it within your WordPress site.

Editor’s note: This post was first published in 2014 but we’ve updated the content so it’s now current for 2017. Enjoy!

10 Best Instagram Plugins for WordPress

Because Instagram is a strictly visual social medium, this opens up the possibilities for how you can incorporate it into your WordPress site. It used to just be that you’d connect the Instagram API to WordPress and then import a copy of the feed into a widget or sidebar.

Nowadays, however, plugin developers have cracked the code and given us so much more control over what can be done with Instagram in WordPress. The following plugins mostly offer options for embedding an Instagram feed onto a page, but there are others here that make use of lightboxes, sliders, portfolios, and other creative options that focus on importing the photo content rather than all the other “stuff” that shows up on Instagram.

AccessPress Instagram Feed Plugin (Free)

Want to include your Instagram feed’s photos without the widgeted box and distracting image descriptions surrounding them? This plugin from AccessPress removes all that excess noise and provides you with a few different layout options for your images, including a slider, lightbox, and basic gallery layout.

AccessPress Instagram Feed Plugin (Premium)

In this upgraded version of AccessPress’s Instagram feed plugin, there are more control options for how your photos are displayed as well as for the information you may want to include around them. For instance, you can show a likes and comments counter for each photo. You can also add animation effects to hover. And you can dynamically design the layouts to present your images in a style that is all your own.

Feed Them Social Plugin (Free)

Sometimes all you need is a simple solution. In the case of Instagram, that would involve placing a copy of your Instagram feed directly onto a page of your website, similar to how it would appear on Instagram (the desktop version, not the app). That’s what this plugin does. It also enables users to import feeds from other social media platforms, so it doesn’t only have to be Instagram if you have rave-worthy photos from other social media accounts you’d like to share.

Instagram Feed Pro Plugin by Smash Balloon (Premium)

If you’re a fan of the customizability that comes with the free version of this plugin, but want even more control over what you can do with your feed, try this one out. It still follows the basic premise—to help you import multiple feeds into one—but this plugin has many more options to play around with. You can create a carousel, open each photo with a lightbox, create shoppable feeds with purchase links, integrate video, and more.

Instagram Feed WD Plugin from Web Dorado (Free)

Although the profile and video for this plugin are a bit misleading, the free version of this plugin is still worth looking into if you want to import an Instagram feed (or feeds) into your site. With the free option, your customization options are limited, but if you don’t need much more than a simple way to display your photos as thumbnails or in a lightbox, this will do the trick.

Instagram Feed WD Plugin from Web Dorado (Premium)

This premium Instagram plugin from Web Dorado offers the same “classic” Instagram feed options as the free version… and then some. If you like the idea of fully customizable themes for your feed, filmstrip layouts, advanced filtering (including by hashtag), as well as comment integration, give this one a look. They also offer a few different plans if you want to use the plugin for multiple websites.

Instagram Journal Plugin (Premium)

Remember how I mentioned the Instagram API above? Well, this plugin takes full advantage of that, giving you more control over what you can do with your feed. There are fun layouts available like the infinity slider. Theme colors are customizable. You can host an Instagram contest right from within your website. And there’s even a free Instagram-centric WordPress theme included with the plugin.

InstaLink Instagram Widget Plugin (Premium)

Although this is a fairly basic widget plugin, there is room for customization so that it doesn’t look like you used a free plugin to import the standard Instagram feed into your site. You can change the header color, the image size, how far down you want users to scroll through the feed, and you can even choose whether you want a header or not.

InstaShow Instagram Feed Gallery Plugin (Premium)

Tap into the power of Instagram’s API with this plugin and gain more control over: filters, image counts, image sizes, color scheme, metadata displayed, and so on. In addition, this plugin includes 14 different options to alter the UI, so you can adjust the navigation, animation, speed, and automation of your image popups.

Instagram Slider Widget

A slider widget that does exactly what it says on the tin.

Once installed and activated, it creates a responsive widget that displays the latest Instagram posts (up to 20) in either a slider or grid layout. There is no need to set up API access, the widget simply requires an Instagram username.

The widget also allows you to set the interval (in hours) for checking for new posts. Thumbnails are stored locally, so after initial load display is instant.

Wrapping Up

There’s no doubt that Instagram is one of the more creative social media platforms businesses have to work with. These Instagram plugins surely offer up enough flexibility in what you can do with your Instagram photos, so have fun with it! Get creative in where you place your Instagram feeds and how they’re displayed, and give your site another way to stand out from all the others.

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23 Responses

I have an issue with Alpine PhotoTile For Instagram that will have me not using it again as a gallery in a post. The photos do not update instantly. They actually will not even update unless I manually clear my website’s cache. On my site, we do live social media coverage of local events, so that means one person has to manually clear the cache while another person is out shooting & posting. Definitely not ideal.

I also will not want to use it as a sidebar widget. Since more than one person uses my website’s IG account, the widget I use on my sidebar picks up images from the personal feeds of the people who use it. This happens even after I clear the website’s cache, but it’s never happened with any other IG widget I’ve used.

Thanks for the article Chris. I was searching on Google for Instagram plugins for wordpress and found this post. As per my requirements, I think DsgnWrks Instagram Importer plugin that you have described above, fits my need. I am yet to try it. Hoping I can import all photos as seprate wordpress posts under a new category. Will try it.

Thanks for the review. I am looking at the Alpino Photo plugin but seems the website is either down or incomplete, as parts of the pages have blank content.
I am trying to create a instagram photo contest on my site, based on photos pulled automatically by a specific hahstag from Instagram.
I was able to locate Instagrate Pro and just started a discussion with the developer to see if it can accomodate my requirements.
I will return with feedback and a link to the website (if you allow it) after it is LIVE. I expect that to be before Augst 1st 2014.

Hi, great Article, but Is there any plugin that adds Photos to Instagram Account.
I am in process of creating website for my interior designing works. I need to have my gallery to be posted on the instagram. Not to import from Instagram, but to export it to Instagram.
As my images will be watermarked index/serial numbers so, I can refer to the design based on the users queries from website or instagram.
Please guide me, so we can I a functional business marketing.

We’ve expanded our platform to not only include Flickr slideshows but also Instagram slideshows as well. It’s a free online slideshow creator that generates html embed codes with some cool background and caption options!

Instagram is a popular social media. It allows users to upload and share pictures as well as videos easily. It is necessary to put top Instagram sharing plugins () on your website to easily share videos and images.

if you don’t want to deal with code, the best plugin that I’ve found for placing an Instagram feed on your WordPress site is Pixlee’s Social Feed for Instagram (). It’s super easy to set up and maintain.

May I suggest our newly created Instagram feed plugin called Grace?
The only plugin with pre-moderation and drag and drop design builder. I hope you’ll like it. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks!
Also don’t hesitate to ask me for a free copy to use on your website.